Coming into her own: Leonardi enjoyed superb sophomore season

Tuesday

Jul 22, 2014 at 3:15 AM

By Al Pikeapike@fosters.com

NORTH HAMPTON — With the pressure off, the game was on for Izzy Leonardi.

The budding tennis star realized it was easier to be the first Izzy Leonardi than the next Julia Keenan, who set near unreachable standards during a dominant four-year career with the St. Thomas Aquinas High School girls tennis team.

Keenan, who now plays for Seton Hall University, won an unprecedented four straight NHIAA singles championships while helping the Saints capture two state team titles.

She never lost a match in high school, leaving a legacy that will be difficult, if not impossible, to match.

“Everyone talks about it,” Leonardi said. “It’s hard not to. Freshman year I got really frustrated with myself. Knowing the type of player Julia is, I felt I had to fill those shoes so I put a lot of pressure on myself which didn’t help. It was the wrong thing to do.

“I expected more from myself,” the North Hampton resident added. “Coming into sophomore year I knew that I had to take the pressure off and just play and be happy with how I play.”

Based on the results, Leonardi succeeded. She went undefeated in singles play during the regular season against the cream of the crop in Division II. She also helped lead St. Thomas to the D-II final where the Saints lost to a very good and deeper Hanover club.

“It was upsetting,” Leonardi said, “but they deserved it. Hanover had such a good team. All of their top six were such strong players.”

Leonardi and partner Maggie Holland were unbeaten in doubles play until the championship match.

Leonardi was the No. 4 seed in the NHIAA singles tournament, and she and Holland reached the quarterfinals in doubles.

All those factors contributed to Leonardi being named Foster’s girls tennis player of the year.

“I’m very proud of myself and I’m very proud of my team,” she said. “We had expectations to go to the final, and that’s what we did. To get that far was a big accomplishment. Of course we wanted to win it, but it just wasn’t our day.”

It’s not as if Leonardi’s freshman year was a bust. Far from it. She was the No. 1 singles player on the squad and helped lead St. Thomas to an unexpected D-II title, upsetting Hanover on the road in the semifinals along the way.

Leonardi lost two matches in the regular season a year ago and went 13-3 overall. “The goal going into my freshman year was I wanted to be one,” she said. “That’s what I was looking for. I wanted to go undefeated. That didn’t end up happening so then I knew to put it as a goal for my sophomore year.”

A multi-sport athlete, she was also on the varsity swim team as a freshman, and spent much of the tennis season trying to play through a nagging wrist injury.

This year she decided to focus solely on tennis.

“I felt a lot better,” Leonardi said. “I was more fresh. I wasn’t going right from swimming. I just felt more energetic.”

After missing the opener because of illness, she went 13-0 in the regular season and 14-2 overall against some of the best players in the state.

“She’s technically correct,” said St. Thomas coach Rusty Whitehouse. “Her tactics are excellent. She has a competitive fire you don’t see a lot in a younger high school athlete. She’s hard on herself. She wants to overachieve.”

That competitive fire emerged this season in the form of a self-inflicted ankle injury that bothered Leonardi for the rest of the year and into the summer.

It occurred during a match when she accidentally hit the outside of her ankle with her racket.

“I didn’t mean to hit my ankle,” Leonardi said. “I meant to hit the bottom of my foot. I got frustrated and I wasn’t thinking. I walked off the court and my ankle was swollen.

“I didn’t take care of it,” she added. “I just pushed through it.”

After 14 consecutive singles victories, Leonardi tasted defeat for the first time this past season in the semifinals against Bishop Brady.

However, she and Holland quickly avenged that defeat at No. 1 doubles as the Saints advanced to the championship match.

Trailing 5-4 at first doubles, Leonardi and Holland won four of the next five games to prevail, 8-6. Leonardi’s forehand winner at match point clinched it.

It made the 8-0 loss to Shelby Herrington at first singles a little easier to take.

“When you try your hardest and then that’s the final result, it’s upsetting,” Leonardi said. “She was very intimidating. She hit really hard. ... I was very disappointed in myself because I thought I let the team down. Winning that (doubles) match against Brady was very rewarding.”

As was her sophomore season.

“Looking back at just the regular season, I was very proud of myself,” Leonardi said. “I did better than I did my freshman year. I wanted to improve and grow from my freshman year, and I did.”